Unknown Mexico, Volume 1 (of 2) eBook

To my knowledge, this beer is not known outside of
the Tarahumare tribe and their immediate neighbours,
the northern Tepehuanes, the Tubars, and some Mexicans
in Chihuahua who have also adopted it. It must
not be confounded with the well-known Mexican drink,
pulque, to which it is superior in flavour. It
is very nourishing, and the Indians as well as the
Mexicans are in the habit of abstaining from food
before partaking of the beer, which they assert would
otherwise not agree with them. But, food or no
food, at all feasts and dances they drink such incredibly
large quantities that they are invariably completely
overpowered by it, though when taken in moderation
tesvino is only mildly stimulating.

Another national beverage, maguey wine, is made from
a favourite sweet food of many Indian tribes, which
a white man’s stomach can hardly digest, namely,
the baked stalk of the maguey plant, or that of other
agaves. To prepare the liquor, the leaves are
cut from the bulb-shaped stalk or heart, which looks
like a hard white head of cabbage. These hearts
contain a great deal of saccharine matter, and are
baked between hot stones in earth mounds, being protected
against contact with earth by layers of grass.

When the Tarahumares want to make maguey wine they
leave the baked stalks in water in natural hollows
or pockets in rocks, without any covering. The
root of a certain plant called frijolillo is added
as a ferment, and after two days the juice is wrung
out with a blanket.

An intoxicating drink is also made from another agave,
called tshawi, which, though common on the higher
slopes of the barrancas, has only recently become
known to science. According to tradition it is
the first plant God created, and the liquor made from
it is considered by the pagan Tarahumares as indispensable
to certain ceremonies. The Tepehuanes, too, put
much importance on this brew, and say that the plant
is so sensitive that if one passes a jar in which it
is being boiled the liquid will not ferment.

Finally it should be mentioned that an intoxicating,
though extremely distasteful drink is made from the
stalk of the maize plant (cana), by pounding
this material into a pulp, then allowing it to soak
in water for three days, when it is fermented, whereupon
the liquor is prepared in the same way as the maguey
wine.

Chapter XIV

Politeness, and the Demands of Etiquette—­The Daily Life of the
Tarahumare—­The Woman’s Position is High—­Standard of Beauty—­Women
Do the Courting—­Love’s Young Dream—­Marriage Ceremonies, Primitive
and Civilised—­Childbirth—­Childhood.

For a barbarian, the Tarahumare is a very polite personage.
In his language he even has a word “reko”
which is the equivalent of the English “please,”
and which he uses constantly. When passing a
stranger, or leaving a person, he draws attention to
his action by saying, “I am going.”
As he grows civilised, however, he loses his good
manners.